The Lemmon To His Matthau
by Andromeda Earhart
Summary: The story of what happens when Jess confronts Nick about what CeCe said.  Oneshot as of now.  Round 2 of prompts by writergirl89!


**Here goes Round Two! This one is a lot more innocent than what I'm used to, but it felt right as I was writing it. As with the previous fics I've written about these two, it's a oneshot but could be more if I'm persuaded in that way. Please let me know what you think!**

…**.**

Jess was lying in her bed, pajamas on, teeth freshly brushed, and blanket pulled up to her chin. She had a field trip to the zoo with the school the next day and knew she'd need all the rest she could get beforehand, so she was presently trying to sleep. However, simply holding your eyes closed does no help in bringing on sleep when your mind is racing a million miles an hour.

She had been freaking out all day long about what CeCe said about Nick being "into her". She didn't know why it freaked her out so much at first. She had just launched into acting like a complete crazy person for reasons she couldn't even explain completely. She had finally toned down the crazy when they had shared their moment while brushing their teeth. And it had been a moment, a very special one in Jess's mind.

It had only occurred twenty minutes previous and it was what was now making Jess's mind race. She had realized, there in that moment, why she was freaking out. She loved Nick, as a person, in the same way she loved all of the guys. She loved their perfectly quirky dynamic, a family she called it. Jess realized that her fear lay in that if Nick liked her as more that it would screw everything up. Things would go badly if he really did like her and she rejected him because she didn't feel the same way. And she didn't feel like she felt the same way, not really anyways.

But who's to say he felt that way in the first place, she though to herself. Just because CeCe had assumed Nick liked Jess didn't mean at all that he actually did. Jess thought harder on this. Of course he didn't like her, she concluded. CeCe didn't even have good reasons. His feet pointed to her? What the hell does that mean? Your feet obviously point to the person you're facing, and in the instance CeCe had been referring to, he had been facing Jess. You can face someone to address them without being "into them".

And furthermore, for every bit CeCe had given trying to convince Jess, there were at least twice as many things Jess could bring up proving Nick _didn't _like her. He had been annoyed with her from the get go. He rolled his eyes at her, he made fun of her, he got frustrated with her and he made that stupid (but kind of cute) grumpy face. You can't be into someone who annoys the hell out of you, Jess reasoned.

Also, to elaborate on the grumpy thing, he was very grumpy with her a lot of the time! He would be all grumpy and mean and he would say things that, if Jess didn't know him better, could be taken in a way that would really hurt her feelings. She knew this was just the kind of person that he was, but still. You aren't grumpy with the person you want.

Jess also thought about all of the times he had had the perfect opportunity to act on said feelings for her, if he had wanted to. For example, when she had first moved in and was stood up for that date. The guys all showed up and made her feel better. She was very vulnerable that night, and especially given how sweet Nick was being about it all, he totally could have sprung a move then. Also, look at the wedding. She had been pretending to be his girlfriend for goodness sake! Sure he wasn't completely (or at all) over Caroline, nor was he sober in the least, but they had shared a very special moment in that photo booth and she felt they had bonded a lot over it. There was also the time she saw him naked. That would have been a prime opportunity to make his move! Well, on second thought, that probably would have been a terrible time to make a move, she thought. She scratched that from the examples. Or what about shortly after that when he saw her naked? She thought that probably wasn't too good of an example either, but the fact that he had seen her naked in the first place would have impacted him much more if he really did like her.

As Jess thought of more and more shared moments that could have been much more, she surprised herself by the growing disappointment inside of her. She found herself kind of wishing he had made a move. For a minute her mind drifted into what they could have been if he'd actually liked her like CeCe had thought.

But he didn't. He didn't and Jess knew it. But even though she knew it, she couldn't help but want to hear it from him himself. She knew she'd get no sleep otherwise so she hopped up out of bed and quietly left her room. She walked over to his room and placed her hand on the knob to turn it, but stopped herself. _Knock_.

She knocked on his door, not being able to resist making a fun little beat out of it. She used two hands to raise the tempo.

"For the love of God, Jess, stop that and come in," she heard him holler. See, no way he likes you, she thought.

She entered his room and he was sitting on his bed reading. She'd never seen him reading before. It suited him very well. He kind of reminded her of an old man, but not the gross kind. The endearing kind that Jess secretly crushed on. I could totally be the female Lemmon to his Matthau, she pondered. She shot the thought down, though. It was ridiculous to think of him as anything more than what he was. He's Nick! Just Nick, like she was just Jess to him.

"Can I help you?" he asked with a raised brow. She had been staring. She nodded and perched herself at the end of his bed, facing him.

"Yeah. Look, Nick, I just had a quick question for you. I need you to clarify something for me."

"Alright," he answered. He dog-eared the page he was on and set the book aside. Moby Dick. Jess tried hard to hold in a laugh, and to her surprise she succeeded quite nicely. No matter the irony, it only made it that much better that he was reading a classic. Old men read classics. No, Jess, stop it! "Go on," Nick said pointedly, nodding at her. She had been spacing out again.

"Well, the thing is… Okay, Nick, I know you don't like talking about your feelings. We've been over that. But my question does have to do with your feelings. Will that be okay?" He looked at her, completely perplexed, but he nodded.

"Yeah, Jess, sure." She was kind of starting to make him nervous. He fidgeted a little in his place but waited patiently.

"Okay, well it's just… Okay, so earlier today CeCe and I were talking in my room. It was about… Well, it was about a thing. The thing we were talking about was why I was so weird today." She paused, trying to gather her thoughts so she could figure out how to phrase her question.

"Jess just spit it out!" he finally said, raising his voice and giving her one of his angry faces. She was startled. To hell with phrasing things so he wouldn't be embarrassed. Her eyes widened.

"Fine!" she raised her voice right back. His brows shot up and she felt like they were even, so she lowered her voice back down to it's normal volume. "Earlier today, CeCe said you're 'into me'" she emphasized with air quotes. "All I'm wondering is whether or not that's true. Because I told her it totally wasn't true, but she insisted. Just earlier in my room I was thinking about it and I decided I didn't think it was true. There's no way you like me like _that_." There was a tinge of disappointment that almost went completely unnoticed by Nick. "But even though I know it isn't true, I just felt like I needed to hear it from you." She exhaled deeply and waited for him to answer. When he didn't, she sighed. "Look, I know it probably makes you uncomfortable, and I'm sorry about that. But just… Please, Nick." She found that she was pleading more for him saying CeCe was correct.

"Jess, it's just not-"

"Okay, now that's settled. I knew I was right. I'm sorry again for being awkward, I-"

"Jess!" he nearly yelled. He startled her all over again. "Sorry, but you interrupted me. You didn't let me finish."

"But it's okay, all I needed was to hear it from you. I don't need any explanations or anything." She didn't want any explanations. It would make her too sad, she thought.

"You need an explanation for this one," Nick said, much more softly this time. His voice was so sweet and his eyes were so kind that it all made her heart melt. She couldn't say no to him. She just nodded and tugged at her pig-tailed hair nervously.

"Jess, I was going to say it's just not that simple. For me, nothing is that simple when it comes to you. You really confuse the fuck out of me." He looked at her and noticed her face was falling. He mentally kicked himself for the way he had phrased that. "I mean yeah, Jess, there are times when you do things that I find a little less than pleasant, but no matter how pissed off I may act, I still kind of like those annoying things you do. And lately, more often than not… I don't know, Jess, you just _do_ something to me." He was growing nervous, partially because of how vulnerable he had just become and partially because he absolutely could not gauge what she was thinking at that moment.

"Okay," Jess started after a few moments of contemplative silence. "So it's not that simple… Meaning what exactly?"

"Well, I-"

"I mean, I get that I annoy you. I get that I make you angry sometimes. Look, you don't have to pretend like I'm anything more to you than just your roommate, just Jess. It won't hurt my feelings. I just need to hear the absolute truth from you, Nick."

"If you so desperately need to hear the truth from me, Jess, than maybe you should actually let me speak," he said, trying not to snap but growing extremely frustrated. She was not only interrupting him but she was also blatantly not listening to what he was saying. "Jess, you heard me. You do something to me. You do a _lot_ of things to me. I can't get-"

"Well, I don't know, Nick. I think I have a pretty good idea of-"

Just as she cut him off he decided he couldn't go on like this any longer. He leaned forward, kneeling in front of her as he took her face between his hands and pulled it to his. He closed the distance between them, bringing his lips to hers and holding them there, silencing her with a long kiss. When he pulled back, his face remained a mere few inches from hers.

"You have a pretty good idea of what, Jess?" he breathed, eyes searching hers.

Jess was dumbfounded, and it showed. He let her work out her thoughts, but refused to lower his hands or to back away. She suddenly realized that just as always, CeCe had been correct. Nick was into her, way into her if the way he was looking at her was any clue. And she was way into him too. Her mind was buzzing with all of the new feelings she had for him that she suddenly couldn't hold back.

She answered his question by returning her lips to his and kissing him wildly, an action he gladly returned.


End file.
